Under a blue moon

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites (please click link to see the source of these beautiful images)

• Pretty set of nested bowls in a delicate aqua.  Check out the berry bowl too
• Clever way to use left over herbs
• Interesting photography project.  Miho Aikawa took photos of people eating dinner in their homes (tip - click on the next arrow in the upper right corner to advance the pictures and turn on the captions (i with a circle around it))
• Delicate necklace in my favorite color combination
• How well do you see color?  Take the hue test and find out (I felt a little bit nervous when I was taking it - just like taking a real test!  Ha!  And I didn't score as well as I thought I would.  All those colors look the same to me!)

This week went by really quickly for me.  I am not quite sure what is in store for the weekend.  I have a bunch of small projects lined up but they all involve painting.  Not my favorite thing to do.  My oldest son's birthday is on Sunday so we will be having a family celebration.  

Happy Friday everyone!

6.26.11

My second attempt at making ice cream was a much bigger success. A couple of weeks ago I borrowed my friend Keith's ice cream maker. I've been holding it hostage until I can improve on my first, less than satisfying attempt.

First attempt was peach ice cream and my rookie mistake was doubling the amount of fruit in order to have it taste peachier.  All it did was make it icier.  

So yesterday Rick and I hit up our local strawberry purveyor and bought two pints of sweet, small, juicy strawberries.  None of those pale, tasteless ones you find at the grocery store.  

I started with this recipe but then tweaked it as follows:

Strawberry Ice Cream

2 cups sliced strawberries (measure after slicing)
1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups cream

Combine sliced strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar and let sit while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

In a blender mix eggs for two minutes until frothy. Add milk and 3/4 cup sugar and blend for another 30 seconds or so.  

Heat egg/milk/sugar mixture in sauce pan until it almost boils, stirring frequently.  What I do is watch the milk carefully and as soon as it starts to bubble around the edges I take it off the heat.

Place hot egg/milk/sugar mixture into fridge until it cools off (can leave longer if need be).

Once cooled add vanilla and cream, mix.

Puree strawberries using blender or immersion blender. Add to ice cream mixture and stir to combine.

Pour ice cream mixture into ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions. 

It is so creamy and delicious.  My version isn't all that different from the original except that I cooked the egg mixture and left out the lemon.  I also pureed the strawberries so there wouldn't be any large frozen chunks.  

Rick keeps asking me to make peppermint ice cream so that might be next.  I think of peppermint ice cream as being a Christmas type thing but I don't think Keith is going to be all that happy with me if I keep his ice cream maker that long.

  

6.25.11

Glamorous before and after pictures of my shed.  Try to contain yourself.  

This eyesore is just to the right of our garage.  When you drive up to the house it is pretty well hidden by large azaleas and a mimosa tree but our neighbors get the full glory of the mismatched, hodge-podgy mess. 

On Friday afternoon I got a notion to finally paint the thing.  I had some left over paint from when we had our house painted a few years ago.  The before pictures show the paint scheme the house had before we painted it.  

First a little history of the building.  In a previous life it was a kennel. The front and back are actually made from chain-link fence and the two sides are wooden, each with a door.  Inside there is a concrete slab that makes up 2/3's of the floor.  The rest is dirt.  

Ignore the pile of rocks - they are left over from the landscaping we did last year.  Same with the brick.  We just haven't figured out what to do with them yet.  

We covered the chain-link with bamboo fencing material.  It was cheap and easy to attach.  The camera isn't quite picking up the true color of the after - it is a light taupe color. I still need to paint the underside of the over hang but I ran out of paint and motivation.

Not the prettiest building or my idea of what a garden shed should look like but it is an improvement.  It's still held together with termite poop and cobwebs but at least it looks better.

This is what it looks like inside.  No way I'm ever painting the inside. I've already had one black widow spider crawling on my arm in here.  I try to get in and out as quickly as possible.

Sheesh - I rarely blog and this is what you get?  Prettier pictures later on this week - I promise.

 

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites (please click link to see the source of these beautiful images)

• I think this is an adorable invitation for a Summer sleepover. You could do a whole Summer camp theme.
• Pretty earrings (but I can't help but think they would be easy to make).  Speaking of earrings - pretty earring holders (I tried to make a version of the bigger one but you have to buy chicken wire in 25 foot rolls)
• Some chippy cast iron bits:  Door knocker (love the green), door pull (or fabulous for a gate) and a funny sign for your porch (you can flip it around if you are expecting someone)
• I love Slinkachu's art installations.  I can just imagine how fun they would be to conceive and then set up

Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you have a fabulous weekend planned. Summer is officially here!

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites (please click link to see the source of these beautiful images)

• Rustic, tiered tin basket.  Out in your beautifully appointed garden conservatory perhaps?
• Collection of Etsy vintage trays: 70's style (same one was on Posie Gets Cozy blog earlier this week), Roosters! (love the colors), beautiful, soft aqua
• I love the lines of this expandable coat rack
• Prepare to lose several hours of your day - Design*Sponge Living In series - They create a mood board of carefully curated items to represent the tone or scene in a movie. 
• Okay I may be the last person that has heard about this movie but it looks perfectly sweet:  Moonrise Kingdom

I am so happy it is Friday!  I love having the whole weekend stretching out ahead of me.  I have been trying to get into little projects this week and hopefully I'll have something to show for next week.  Nothing overly complicated or wowing - just a couple of easy things.  

Summer feels like it is officially here!  It has been HOT.  And is supposed to be even hotter tomorrow (forcast is for 106 degrees).  I bet there will be lots of bbq-ing and outdoor activities this weekend.  Me?  I'm staying in my house and even turning on the creaky old air conditioner.  Have a wonderful weekend!  

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites (please click link to see the source of these beautiful images)

• Stately sandwiches (who knew every state even HAD a sandwich?) via A Cup of Jo
• I love this iPhone cover (watch out for knock-offs - evidently it is frequently copied but with substandard results)
• I think this is kind of an adorable banner.  
• Time for a trip to the beach:  Tote bag (Navy is nice too)
• Freakishly appealing china.  Or perhaps some ancestoral deer would work better with your decor?

We are having a house guest this weekend so I'm going to spend the day figuring out the menus for her visit.  I guess this means some housework is in order today too.  Nothing like having your mother in law come to visit to make all the cobwebs and smudgy fingerprints come out of hiding.  

I hope your weekend is splendid!

6.5.12

I found the cutest labels and tags at Walmart the other day.  To be honest I am not a big fan of going into Walmart.  Something about it sets my teeth on edge but I wanted to see if I could find an Anchor Hocking piggy bank (I didn't) and, as is the norm, I found a bunch of other stuff I didn't realize I needed.

I can't find the jar labels online but here are the tags.  Both were found in the canning aisle.  At my store each cost less than $2. See what I mean?  I didn't realize that I needed jar labels but it turned out I totally did.

I think they are so sweet.  

I realize apple butter and pumpkin bread are not totally seasonal but I needed props.  By the way this apple butter recipe is fabulous and it freezes really well.

6.3.12

I finally finished my little lap quilt made from vintage sheets.  It was a very simple project so I'm not sure what took so long to finish it up.  

When I was visiting Nicki last week she whipped up a binding for me and attached it to the front of the quilt.  All I needed to do was stitch it to the back.  I think that part is my favorite part of quilting.  I find it very relaxing and peaceful.  

There are 28 different fabrics in the quilt.  I found fat quarters on Etsy and I'm not sure if it is true of all people selling fabric on Etsy or just the kind of personality that likes to collect and sell vintage sheet remnents but each transaction was so sweet.  Fabric beautifully washed, ironed and packaged and, without fail, an extra fat quarter or two thrown in.  

The quilting was done by the very lovely Linda of The Quilted Pineapple.  You know how anxious I get about doing anything quilting related - I don't consider myself a quilter by any stretch of the imagination - but Linda was very kind and complimentary about my humble little quilt.  I told her I wanted something all over in design, very loose and vaguely florally and she did a lovely job doing just exactly that.  

The sheets are all from the late 60's and early 70's and the quilting just works perfectly with them.

I was afraid that since vintage sheets are mostly a cotton/poly blend that I wouldn't get that lovely puckering when I washed it but it puckered up quite nicely.  I did pre-wash the backing before sending it off to be quilted so there wouldn't be a big disparity in how much shrinkage happened once it was quilted and washed.  

Now I just need to hang the hammock and lay outside with a book, an iced tea and my sweet, little quilt.

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites (please click link to see the source of these beautiful images)

• To go with my colorful montage above (giving the muted tones a break this week) here is a fun e-tailer:  PiP Studio  I want new dishes now....
• Is this not the most delicious looking salad you have ever seen?  From the Forest Feast website (I just wanted you to see that gorgeous picture first).  I just love this website. Check out all her recipes.  Each one is beautifully photographed.  I understand she has a cookbook in the works...
• I'm all enamored with Druzy earrings these days.  Like this pair - or maybe this one
• Pretty glass teapot
• Fun print for a child's room (check out the second picture so you can see the whole thing.  I also like the Animal Kingdom print

Well this week shot by, didn't it?  Helps that it was a four day work week for those of us in the USA.  

I'm sticking close to home this weekend, working on putting the binding on a quilt (which I hope to share next week) and just relaxing. I like to have a relaxing, stay at home weekend after a busy one. Last week was all having guests, being guests and major yard work sandwiched in between.  Fun but a bit exhausting.